An individual's reading ability cannot be reliably predicted from his/her letter acuity, contrast sensitivity, and visual field extent. We developed a set of Chinese Reading Acuity Chart (C-READ for short) to assess the reading ability of Chinese readers, based on the collective wisdom of previously published reading acuity charts, especially the Minnesota Low-Vision Reading Test and the Radner Reading Charts. The C-READ consists of three charts. Each is made of sixteen 12-character Simplified Chinese sentences crafted from 1st-3rd grade textbook materials. Thirty Chinese college students tested the reliability of C-READ with corrected vision. Another thirty-two students validated the C-READ with the International Reading Speed Test (IReST) with corrected- and uncorrected-near vision. The reading acuity, critical print size, and maximum reading speed for young normal native Chinese-speaking readers were 0.16 ± 0.05 logMAR, 0.24 ± 0.06 logMAR and 273.44 ± 34.37 characters/minute (mean ± SD), respectively. The reliability test revealed no significant differences of reading acuity, critical print size, and maximum reading speed among three C-READ charts and no significant test order effect. Regression analyses showed that the maximum reading speed of C-READ could reliably predict the IReST reading speed with corrected near vision (adjusted R2 =0.72). Moreover, the maximum reading speed and the critical print size could together reliably predict IReST reading speed with uncorrected near vision (adjusted R2 = 0.69). The C-READ is a reliable and valid clinical instrument for quantifying reading performance in simplified Chinese readers.